Contractor Blames City for Financial Woes

Wyatt Warner, 9, was upset when he came up the driveway and saw that his parents had put the family's camper up for sale.

"It's hard to explain to the younger kids about why we need the money," says Diane Warner, Wyatt's mom.

But then she and her husband, John Warner, have had other hard decisions over the summer. They've had to lay off employees of their business, Integrity Lawn Care of Genesee Township. They've had to put off paying federal payroll taxes. And they've not been able to pay suppliers.

They blame the city of Flint – specifically Mayor Don Williamson – for holding up $25,000 they and their subcontractor are owed for cutting the grass in certain city parks and along certain streets during the spring and summer. Because they weren't paid, it brought an end to what was supposed to have been a contract for nearly $62,000 for city grass cutting this summer.

"It's caused me a lot of sleepless nights," says Diane.

"After getting the run-around from the city of Flint, all the broken promises, it's easy to see why people go postal," says John Warner, 42, about the frustration over having not been paid for the work and realizing the city was breaking the contract.

Now the Warners also are selling off some lawn equipment. Their subcontractor, Matt Brady of Otisville, owner of Freedom Lawn Care, knows all about that, because he and his employees did much of that work.

"I had seven guys working for me, now I have two," says Brady, 32. "I had to pay payroll on a credit card. That's bad business, but I'm an employer and my employees work hard."

What's so aggravating to Brady and the Warners is that Flint city officials know that Integrity Lawn Care was issued a contract earlier in the year to do this work by the city Parks and Recreation Department. At that time, Ed Kurtz, the state-appointed emergency financial manager of Flint, was still in charge of the city's budget and expenses.

But in July, Kurtz's job officially was over and Mayor Don Williamson took control of Flint's finances.

"I've talked with city officials and they say, yes, my clients have done this work and that they are owed this money," says John Zintsmaster, a Mt. Morris Township attorney who is representing the Warners and Brady. "But the mayor refuses to pay it."

The Journal could not reach Williamson for comment as of the time this story went to press. Late in September, Williamson was quoted as saying that the Warners do not have a valid contract and that he could not pay them without the city council's approval.

But to the Warners, that statement is just the latest in a series of evasions that Williamson has used to avoid paying them. They say they've heard from people who work in City Hall that they aren't the only vendor who has not been paid.

"How many more times," questions John Warner, "can he give us the run-around?"

The story of the Warners and their problem with the mayor actually starts with what for them was a happier time, when the state-appointed Kurtz was still in charge of the city's budget and bills.

"We had bid on contracts with the city of Flint two years ago, and they were fantastic to do business with," says John.

Subcontractor Brady agrees.

"We did the work and got our money like clockwork," he says. "If Flint was supposed be in so much worse financial shape then, how is it we could get paid on time? If the city's in so much better shape now, how come we can't get our money? The difference is one thing: Don Williamson."

Late in April of this year, the city parks department issued a contract to the Warners for $61,958. It specified they were to cut the grass at certain city properties, such as the Flint City Cemetery, Mobley Park, Flint River Park and boulevards and "triangles" or grassy areas and right-of-ways between city streets. They say they were one of several lawn service companies to get such contracts.

Based on that contract and the work they would have to do to satisfy the city's terms, the Warners and Brady say they made business decisions - purchasing equipment, hiring employees and deciding how many other clients or jobs they could take on during the summer, given the size of the city's property they had to cut.

"For example, I bought a $12,000 mower, specifically for this job," Brady says. "This was a business decision, based on the fact that this was a big account and we'd need a bigger sized mower for the job. We turned down other jobs because of the time this would take."

The Warners' employees cut city grass through May and June and into July, expecting that the city was going pay the bills for their service. But late in June, they were told by Heather Webb, then-city parks and recreation director, that the contract they had signed with Flint officials had been lost and that John had to go down to City Hall and sign another one. He did so, the Warners say.

But in the meantime, Kurtz had recommended to a state panel that his term as emergency financial director should come to an end and that responsibility for the city's budget and finances should go back into the hands of the mayor and city council. That happened on July 1; shortly afterward, Webb was fired and Douglas Gibbs became the new parks and recreation director.

As June ended and July began, the Warners were wondering: When would Integrity Lawn Care get paid? John Warner went down to City Hall to see Gibbs and ask him that question.

"We were assured that it was just a matter of paperwork, that we should keep doing what we'd been doing and we'd get paid," John says.

But incredibly, the second contract he'd signed with Webb was missing too. They had their copy of the contract, and Gibbs made more copies of it. John says he signed a third copy, but soon found out that disappeared later in July when he went down to find out why they still hadn't been paid.

"He was scrambling around trying to find our paperwork," John says of Gibbs.

In the span of about a month, their original contract and two others had disappeared. So John Warner says he signed a fourth contract, this one also with Gibbs. Still, they weren't paid. Now, after three months of doing work for the city, the Warners and their subcontractor stopped work as of Aug. 3.

"Gibbs told us everyone at City Hall who needed to sign the contract has signed the contract, except the mayor," Warner says.

Diane Warner says Gibbs stopped taking their phone calls, saying that his hands were tied. "I started calling the mayor's office," she says.

On Aug. 11, the Warners and Brady say, they met with Williamson to ask why they hadn't been paid.

"He treated us like he was the king, and we were some kind of peasants," Brady says.

According to the Warners and Brady, the mayor claimed he "had never seen this (their contract) before." But when the Warners asked Gibbs to join the meeting, they say the parks director stated he personally had brought the contract to Williamson.

"The mayor was furious," says Diane Warner. "He snapped, 'Why am I involved in this? Pay these people.' "

The Warners and Brady thought that was the end of the matter and that they would be paid, but that hasn't been the case. In subsequent calls to Williamson, Diane says, she's been told once that he "doesn't remember who we are" and another time that they can't be paid because "we don't do it that way anymore."

City Council members were sympathetic to Diane when she appeared before them on Sept. 27, and one even offered to testify on the Warners behalf should they file suit. The Warners and Brady say its not what they wanted to do, but that Williamson is leaving them no choice. They expect they'll be suing the city shortly.

"I'll go out of business before I take one penny less than he owes me," says Brady, who is selling his jet skis and assorted trucks, tractors and equipment to keep his business going.

Zintsmaster says the fact that so many copies of the contract have disappeared and that Williamson has refused to sign it won't get the city off the hook, legally, for what it owes Integrity Lawn Care.

The Warners and the city have generated a veritable pile of papers that shows the contract being let, resolutions passed and directions for work given to the company, all by Flint officials, he notes. Personnel from the city parks, finance department and legal office have all admitted that Integrity Lawn Care has done the work.

"It appears to me the mayor is pushing around these small businesses," Zintsmaster says, "simply because he can."

Brady says that since he and the Warners company stopped doing the work, another contractor has been cutting the grass in the same parks and boulevards.